Lake is ‘not receiving the protection it needs’

The biggest single source of drinking water in Kerry is not receiving the protection it needs, it has been warned, as delays in providing a €23m treatment plant continue.

Lough Guitane, near Killarney, supplies about 70,000 people — half the county’s population, including the towns of Killarney and Tralee — and work on a new treatment plant had been due to start last year.

However, according to Kerry County Council, construction may not begin until 2014, subject to Department of Environment approval.